At least $380,000 raised for bullied New York bus monitor

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- A video of a 68-year-old school bus monitor being mercilessly
taunted by seventh-graders became a rallying point against bullies Thursday,
with a fund for the New York state grandmother raising at least $380,000 and a
deluge of people demanding harsh punishment for the boys.

Police said Karen Klein does not want her young tormenters to
face criminal charges, partly because of the storm of criticism leveled at the
boys from the Rochester suburb of Greece after the video went viral.

“They’ve received death threats,” Greece Police Capt. Steve
Chatterton said Thursday. “Their families have been threatened. We have custody
of one of their cellphones, and he had over 1,000 missed calls and 1,000 text
messages threatening him. And he’s 13 years old. That must stop.”

The verbal abuse was captured in a 10-minute cellphone video
recorded Monday by a student of Athena Middle School in suburban Rochester and
later posted to YouTube. The video shows Klein trying her best to ignore the
stream of profanity, insults and outright threats directed at her.

One student taunted: “You don’t have a family because they all
killed themselves because they don’t want to be near you.” Klein’s oldest son
killed himself 10 years ago.

Eventually, she appears to break down in tears.

“You want to jump into that bus and you want to grab those kids
and say ‘Knock it off!’ And you want to hold her,” said Amy Weber, a 43-year-old
independent filmmaker from the Detroit area who pledged $100 Thursday through
the international crowd-funding site Indiegogo.com.

“I think we hear about bullying every day and we become a little
desensitized to it. This puts it in our face,” said Weber, who is making a
feature film about a bully.

Klein told NBC’s “Today” show Thursday that it took “a lot of
willpower” not to respond to the jeers from the four boys riding the bus
operated by the Greece Central School District. Klein said she was “amazed” at
the support she received.

“I’ve got these nice letters, emails, Facebook messages,” she
said. “It’s like, wow, there’s a whole world out there that I didn’t know. It’s
really awesome.”

She said she hopes the parents will talk to their children about
being “a little more respectful.”

Klein did not immediately return a call from The Associated
Press.

The video logged more than 2 million views by Thursday evening,
breaking hearts and raising passions of people who recalled bullying in their
own pasts. The fundraiser set up on Indiegogo.com shattered its goal of raising
$5,000 to send the grandmother of eight on a “vacation of a lifetime.” Thousands
of people donated, many in denominations of $20 or less.

“I don’t see how anyone can watch that and not be touched by it.
It made me realize — and I posted on my Facebook wall — that sticks and stones
may break my bones but words will still hurt you no matter how old you are,”
said Deana Rock, a 42-year-old marketing professional from Williston, Vt., who
pledged $30.

Rock said she was moved to tears by the video and donated the
money so Klein would not have to get back on the bus.

Police in the suburb of Greece had to step up patrols near the
houses of the four boys and said they had received several threatening hoax
calls from people. The boys had not yet apologized to Klein as of Thursday
afternoon, though police said they regretted their acts and their parents are
cooperating.

The district apologized to Klein and will discipline all four
students.

The swell of support for Klein follows a recent surge in
awareness of bullying that has brought the issue from the classroom to the stage
and screen to the White House.

In September, after 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer of suburban
Buffalo killed himself after complaining about being bullied about his
sexuality, pop singer Lady Gaga decried the loss of another life to bullying,
tweeting to millions of followers that she’d take her concerns to President
Barack Obama.

This year, the White House held a conference on bullying
prevention, estimating that it affects 13 million students, or about a third of
those attending school. Obama said he hoped to “dispel the myth that bullying is
just a harmless rite of passage or an inevitable part of growing up.”

In April, the documentary film “Bully” examined the problem by
following five kids over the course of a school year.

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